hey guys i looked at my turbo and it looks kinda weird. i wanna know if its good. cause the prevous owner sayed it was getting red hot. i looked at the fins and they looked ok i guess. there where 2 fins together. that kinda pattern. they might have been dented a tad. and there was oil on the outside of the fins. not a whole lot but a enough to see. do u think itsw good. u can spend it freely and it is not notchy or nothing. but what wouild cause the hotness?? no oil getting to it?? or could it be a clogged cat?? thanks

 

What do you mean by "looks weird"? It sounds pretty normal. Did the PO say when it glowed? If you work a turbo hard it'll glow bright red. This is quite normal and it only takes about 20-30sec at full load to make NA exhaust manifolds, turbo manifolds and turbine housings glow. I've done this on a chassis dyno, it looks great if you turn the lights off! Have a read of this:
http://www.brickboard.com/ARCHIVES/2...20105735.shtml

 

Glowing turbos are normal... mine does it all the time. The oil is OK as long as there is not TOO much there. How does the car run? Does it smoke a lot? What you want to make sure of with the turbo is that it doesn't have much play in the shaft. Pull / push on the shaft... and then try to wiggle it. Basically a SMALL amount is normal... but the less play the better....